We did it, and it was Beautiful

Friends, we did it.Last Sunday, we held our first worship gathering for Genesis Covenant Church, and it was pure joy for me. Normally, in these moments, I'm a strange brew of anticipation and dread, and mostly I just want it to be over. Not so on Sunday. I was present, and I enjoyed the moments, every one of them. I really did. There were so many who made it possible, so many who worked so hard. Together, I believe we created a space where people felt they could connect with God, and with each other.When I preach, I ask non rhetorical questions, and then I wait to see who might answer. The brave ones in the community actually do. To my great delight, many of the answers last Sunday came from kids. One of the values at Genesis is conversation, and this is one of the ways we do it. We believe a fuller picture of God and of Scripture comes together when a melody of voices ring out, versus when we listen to a solo.One of my friends told me that she was sitting in front of a younger child that was answering every question, and the child's mom was getting nervous, and finally told the child to be quiet. I can relate to that mother on eleventy-four thousand levels. But my friend smiled, looked at the mother and said, "Oh, no, actually we want to hear his voice here. We value it!" The mother began immediately crying, stunned that what she thought was a nuisance might actually be a gift. I love that. Kids are noisy and unpredictable, and when we make space for them, beautiful things happen.I'm sure I'll post many more things about this brazen community that we've started, but I just wanted to let you all know that we started it. Many of you have been praying and cheering, even from all the way across the world, and I wanted to say thank you. We are in this together, and we did it!To listen to my message from last Sunday, click here.To check out the Genesis website, click here.To make a fully tax deductible online donation Genesis, click here.